Kagato Selina
Selina vs Kagato So this was it, Kagato was to test his might against Selina, the oldest (potentially) of the rogues. Selina had almost achieved her Bankai, combining that with her hollow implant meant she was indeed powerful. It was odd for Kagato to look at Selina, if the history books were to be trusted; her ancestor Tsuchi had been the creator of the Zanpaktou and a close ally of his own ancestor Miraiko Tsurugi. And then the battle started, Selina drew her Zanpaktou holding it tightly in her once hollow hand. Selina like the rest of them had slowly been evolving her powers and thus now had a control over her own body. Her hand although now resembling her original hand, still radiated cold and Kagato knew to be careful. Selina using shunpo closed the gap between the two and decided to strike down on the young fullbringer. Not fast enough to manifest his sword via his pendant, his tattoo flared into action; the Mark of Krios or the Crescent of Arjuna and a glowing reishi rod manifested in his hand, a facsimile of Anjalika, Arjuna’s mighty spear. The rod blocked Selina’s attack, both she and himself were using their base powers, the ones they were most familiar with, but things would have go up a level soon. Selina opened her hand, and her Zanpaktou simply crumbled away adding to her hand, her clawed hollow hand grasping the rod tightly, released a small bala blast, enough to disperse Kagato’s rod and send him flying. As Kagato was flying back through the air, he narrowed his eyes and started to focus, focus on his inner beast. He was a human interjected with the spiritual essence of a Shinigami, but he could with focus bring out a form akin to that of a hollow, he was going to fight beast with beast. Kagato landed on the ground on all fours, his hands and feet now visibly showing claws, his eyes glowing a dull yellow. “Frostbite… Fenrir!” Selina exclaimed raising her empty clawed hand upwards, slowly the reishi fragments dissolved once more from her claw and transformed into the Shikai state of her Zanpaktou, a small, bone white dagger. Selina once again using shunpo tried to close the gap between the two of them, slashing and jabbing at Kagato with extreme speed, luckily his sonido allowed him to narrowly weave out the way of the small yet precise strikes. His hollow form was good for agility and reaction, but his scope of attack was miniscule. So like Selina he reverted back to what he knew, these other abilities were helpful indeed but pointless if they needed to be switched out and couldn’t be used in Tandem. Kagato raised his hollowfied hands and slowly you could see the reishi of his claws dissolving and his chain and charm start to glow. “Links of Creation.” Kagato said with a smirk as his chain expanded in size until he was surrounded by a ring of glowing circles of reishi. Selina narrowed her eyes and just as expected, Kagato thrust his hands forward and bolts of reishi were sent directly towards her. Selina jumped and contorted out of the way of Kagato’s reishi blasts, although his powers were quite what you would call those of a quincy, they were able to achieve the same results with maybe even less effort on his part. Selina was able to dance out of the way of most of them, using her daggered to swat or parry away the others. Until out of nowhere Kagato appeared holding a large zweihander, a sword Selina knew all to well as ‘The Sword of Exclusion’. She had to escape and quickly, Kagato’s sword was particulary annoying with it’s ability to magnetise reishi. Selina jumped out the way, and the sword easily carved through the ground were Selina was once standing, but however on her retreat, Kagato’s ‘Links of Creation’ were still active and Selina was hit in the chest with a dozen reishi bolts. The pain was staggering, it wasn’t fatal but still immensely painful, Kagato had gotten better at his ability to control reishi and each bolt was like a self-twisting knife in her chest. She screamed out, fangs forming in her mouth, as her hollow side demanded control, but it took her human instincts to hold it back and remain herself, yet her shinigami side was currently dominant, each part of her psyche demanding to be heard in the haze of the pain. And then it could have been the pain talking, or perhaps it was desperation, but why couldn’t she accept all three at the same time, was there a definite reason as to why her powers had to revolve, after all it was this constant revolution that lead to fracture of the G2’s or rather Project Castors own mental state. Kagato was edging toward Selina, she was currently pinned to the far wall, being held up by the reishi bolts. This was just meant to be an intense training session, to push them to their limits, Kagato had no intention of actually causing any permanent damage to Selina. His reishi bolts although they pierced her skin he had tuned them not to actually do any damage while within her, they just radiated pain to keep her occupied. He was getting closer, she could smell him even though her head lay drooped facing the ground, as the pain surged through her body. She was a genius and a pure soul; she could do anything if she put her mind to it. That was it, it was her mind all the different voices were just different inflections of herself, it wasn’t an inner hollow or human, but rather herself under different guises, surely she could remove all the fluff and superficial nature of it all, the key was to surrender herself and trust in her own power. So she let the pain swallow her. Kagato noticed Selina going limp, as if the pain no longer flared within her, but he could feel a wave of cold radiating from her, and he could sense her reiatsu was rising and morphing. He lowered his blade but upped his guard as he edged closer to Selina, she seemed almost trancelike, and this wasn’t the outcome of his blasts he had expected, so he watched with apprehension. When he was about two metres away, Selina raised her head, her eyes bright yellow and frosting at the edges, she thrust her hand out to grab Kagato by the neck, the reishi bolts popping into small cascades of reishi freeing her. Kagato’s eyes met Selina’s as he scrambled to free his neck from her cold vice-like grip. He could feel his body growing colder as it seemed she was sucking the heat from him, her eyes still bright yellow glazed over, she was running on instinct and she may actually kill him, time to make a snap decision. “Selina!” He said through strained breaths, but nothing was getting through to her. ‘Forgive me’ he thought as he sent up a silent message to Selina, before summoning his sword and swiftly cutting off her hand, it was a cut from Seclusion, so he could heal it later if needs be. Selina screeched and jumped back, her detached hand still tight around Kagato’s neck, which he began to slowly pry off. Selina was holding her stump and looked at Kagato before roaring in his direction, shooting a blast of cold reiryoku his way, icing the tips of his hair. It looked like she had completely given into the hollow, but this was different, she still held her Zanpaktou in her left hand and that icy breath was one of her human abilities, had she somehow figured out how to use them all in unison. Upon looking back at Selina, her hand was regrowing, high speed regeneration, as soon as the hand was all there, she flexed it and claws grew from the tips as well as on the opposite hand which held her Zanpaktou. Claws and her Zanpaktou were one thing, Selina had learned that a while ago, it was the addition of the second claw and her icy breath that proved worrying. Kagato was jumping back to avoid the intense strikes and attacks of Selina, she was now definitely going for the kill, he was currently using his version or hirenkyaku to skate around her strikes. He looked her up and down and took a reading of her reiatsu, she was using all three types at once, was this possible for him to try, he was already a master of reishi, but could he handle this. He of course would have to tweak it to make sure he was fully lucid, unlocking so much of his soul, the essence of his spirit, the completeness of it all. Selina was a natural genius, and had thrown together this response under strain and stress, Kagato although not smart enough to discover it himself, was able to watch and replicate, but he would make sure he did it correctly. The skating was proving taxing on his body, Selina manifesting herself as partial hollow meant she at least had the physical stamina to keep on. Kagato held the sword of seclusion in his hand, it was his medium, his human essence, it was his sword, his shinigami essence, all he needed to do now was combine this with his hollow essence, which was easier said than done, he had no mask nor mask fragment to act as his focal point, but he would still have to try. He raised his sword at the incoming Selina, he hoped this worked. He focused on unlocking his Resurrección, releasing his hollow essence from within the zanpaktou, which in turn was a fullbring. He felt a wave of energy wash over him as if it was spilling from his inside soul to cover and protect him. It wasn’t hollow, it wasn’t shinigami and it wasn’t entirely human, it was however entirely him, his complete spirit. Kagato still fiery with all this energy exhaled slowly and silent spoke to himself, or to the room, either way it was an exclamation of power. “...Banrei” Everything solidified as the matrix of energy was fully covering him. He was wearing a fine reishi coat, made of individually sparkling threads with a leopard motif, the leopards head and the corresponding hollow mask a clasp across his top to hold the mantle in place. In his hand remained 'The Sword of Seclusion, but it was different somehow, Kagato felt light, unburdened, he felt powerful, a ring of reishi circled behind his head, much like yet still different to 'The Links of Creation', but he felt Titanic. Rabid Selina noticed this change and within the haze of her madness the slightest smile could be made out. The rabid version of Selina darted towards Kagato once more, Sonido increasing her speed. Bolts from the ring of Reishi behind his head started shooting towards Selina, but she was too fast. Icy breath falling from her mouth was adding a chill to the air. And then she tripped, Kagato was smiling. If you looked carefully or were exceptionally spiritual you would have noticed the very thin reishi strings connected to Kagato's earlier bolts which turned the ground into a zigzag of tripwire, that the wolven Selina was now fighting in. Kagato descended upon the feral Selina, her eyes still glowing, but she was restrained for now at least. "WAKE UP!" He shouted, but she was not responding to rhyme nor reason. Category:Prose